SECTION_C__STATEMENT_OF_WORK_(REV).pdf

SECTION C – STATEMENT OF

WORK (REV)

C.1 Background

Federal Student Aid (FSA), a principal office of the U.S. Department of Education, plays a central and essential role in postsecondary education as the largest provider of student financial aid in the country. FSA ensures that all eligible individuals may benefit from federally funded or federally guaranteed financial assistance for education beyond high school. FSA consistently champions the promise of postsecondary education and training to all Americans—and its value to our society. The Department of Education has the responsibility of ensuring that each postsecondary educational institution seeking or participating in the FSA Title IV programs, under the Higher Education Act (HEA) as amended, comply with the laws, regulations and policies to gain or maintain participation in those programs.

Loans Segment Planning is fundamental to the execution of FSA strategy and help to integrate processes such as Strategic Planning, Investment

Management (IM), and Enterprise Architecture (EA).

The integration of the budget and performance ensures linkage of funding decisions to results, and ensures that

FSA complies with the mandates of the Clinger-Cohen

Act and the Office of Management and Budget

(OMB). This is represented in Figure 1 – FSA Planning

Activities, which is adapted from the “Enterprise Life

Cycle” within the A Practical Guide to Federal

Enterprise Architecture, v1.0 dated February 2001.

FSA has a dynamic and iterative process of changing the enterprise over time by incorporating new business processes, new technology, and new capabilities, as well as maintenance and disposition of existing elements of the enterprise.

Strategic Planning

Enterprise Architecture

Investment Management

Figure 1 – FSA Planning Activities http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/588407.pdf http://www.gao.gov/assets/590/588407.pdf

The Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture was replaced by The Common Approach to Federal Enterprise Architecture in May 2012. Depicted in Figure 2 – Integrated Governance is a representation of Integrated Governance. It provides a view of Integrated Governance practices and the interrelationships between federal guidance, agency governance processes, and the programs and offices that implement that guidance in an integrated manner. This governance model begins in the upper left quadrant with law and policy; moves to the upper right quadrant where high-level agency directives are represented; moves down to the lower right where operations and planning/management functions are reflected, and finally to the lower left quadrant where architecture and standards are reflected. The model finishes in the center where portfolio and investment management occurs through a number of planning and decision-making bodies. The harmonizing/standards role of EA is depicted as being driven by law and policy and delivering authoritative reference information and design alternatives for the capital planning process in the center.

Figure 2 – Integrated Governance https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/egov_docs/common_approach_to_federal_ea.pdf https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/egov_docs/common_approach_to_federal_ea.pdf

Figure 3 – Integrated Planning further decomposes the relationship of FSA planning activities. Strategic

Planning addresses all needs, leading to better business and customer outcomes. Enterprise

Architecture looks across the entire organization through multiple lenses to analyze the impact on people, processes, and technology. Enterprise Architecture collaborates with Investment

Management to develop a Pre-Select Plan that results in a tactical plan on how to achieve FSA strategic priorities, goals, and objectives. Investment Management manages the portfolio of

Major IT Business Cases and Investment Requests and supports Investment Review Board decisions to ensure sound financial decisions.

Figure 3 – Integrated Planning

The United States Congress passed the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act

(FITARA) in December 2014 followed by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) implementation guidance in June 2015. FITARA augments the 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act to tackle waste and ineffectiveness in federal IT investments by changing authority and governance in U.S. Federal IT. It gives Federal Government CIOs more power over IT budgets, projects, staffing and acquisition/development. It also gives CIOs in U.S. federal Government agencies new authority and responsibilities for civilian applications. FSA’s Integrated Governance

Support activities will support FSA in strengthening accountability for the agency's IT cost, schedule, performance, and security. This will establish an inclusive governance process that will enable effective planning, programming, budgeting, and execution for IT resources. This will provide transparency of IT resources across FSA and provide oversight of IT resources.

Title IV Program Operations

Performance Metrics

Strategic Planning

Operating Committee

Strategic Priorities

Mission Support

Enablement Functions

Enterprise Architecture

Current State, Target State, Roadmap

Architecture Management

Solution Architecture

Technology Trends and Roadmaps

Standards and Tools

Technical Products, Data, Supporting Tools

Portfolio Management

Business Cases, Investment

Requests

Investment Management

Investment Governance

Strategic Investment Plan, IRB Support

Performance Reporting

Monitoring and Reporting

Priorities and Investments

C. 2 Objective

This IDIQ high-level requirement describes services that may be required by the U.S.

Department of Education, heretofore referred to as “ED” or “the Department”, Office of Federal

Student Aid (FSA). FSA seeks Contractor support services in the successful execution of the

FSA Integrated Governance Support (IGS) program functions as listed below:

A. Loans Segment Planning

1. Pre-Select

2. Architecture Planning

3. Data Architecture Planning

4. Security Architecture Planning

5. Integration Services

6. Strategic Planning Services

B. Loans Segment Execution

1. Select, Control, and Evaluation

2. Architecture Execution

3. Enterprise Data Management

4. Enterprise Governance

C. Loans Segment Program Management

D. Loans Segment Technical Architecture

1. Acquisition Support

2. Design Oversight

3. LMM Design Standards and Stage Gates

4. Technical Market Research and Requirements

5. Process Documentation

C. 2.1 Scope

The scope of this procurement is to obtain resources to support Loans Segment Planning to assist with delivering quality solutions for FSA. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the

Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with providing Loans Segment Planning

2. Assist with providing Loans Segment Execution

3. Assist with providing Loans Segment Program Management

C. 3 Loans Segment Planning

FSA’s Loans Segment Planning objective is to facilitate collaboration between sponsors and various stakeholders to clearly identify and prioritize needs, research other organizations facing similar needs, and formulate the plans to address the stated needs (Additional requirement details will be outlined in each individual Task Order). The Contractor shall at the discretion of the

Contracting Officers (CO’s) provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with providing Pre-Select Services

2. Assist with providing Architecture Planning Services

3. Assist with providing Data Architecture Planning Services

4. Assist with providing Security Architecture Planning Services

5. Assist with providing Integration Services

6. Assist with providing Strategic Planning Services

C.3.1 Pre-Select

The Pre-Select Phase provides a process to assess proposed solutions for unmet business requirements. It allows for a governance process to ensure that proposed investments support the agency strategic plan and mission needs as well as provide initial information to further support investments. It is during this phase that the business/mission need is identified and relationships to the Department and/or agency strategic planning efforts are established. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Support use of Investment Management and Enterprise Architecture processes as effective tools for planning.

2. Support Investment Management and Capital Planning and Investment Control

(CPIC) processes to achieve Investment Management Group (IMG) objectives of long-range strategic planning and disciplined budget decision-making processes to achieve performance goals and objectives with minimal risk, lowest life-cycle costs or greatest benefits for the agency.

3. Collaborate with senior executives to implement FSA’s Strategic Plan through strategic initiative development and execution.

4. Coordinate activities within Performance Management and across FSA (Budget, EA, CIO, Acquisitions, etc.) to align mission needs and strategy with investments in an effective and efficient manner.

C.3.2 Architecture Planning

FSA seeks Enterprise Architecture planning support that improves the quality, timeliness, and impact of the enterprise architecture in driving strategic business transformation and investment planning decisions in FSA. This support results in the capture and integration of architecture data about the Agency from the programs within an enterprise architecture tool; and supports the creation of high-quality guidance and support for solution architectures. The institution of a collaborative, shared planning process with business and IT stakeholders is a key method to the definition of the current state environment and future-state vision in terms of requirements, principles and models. The future-state vision can be compared to the current state to identify gaps that can be filled by investments that are described in an enterprise roadmap on how the vision will be implemented. This support enhances the credibility of the Enterprise Architecture

Program with customers and stakeholders. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the

Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the Loans Segment Current State

Architecture.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the Loans Segment Current State

Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) Reference Models.

3. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the Loans Segment Current State

Assessment, Gap Analysis, and Recommendations.

4. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the FSA Target State Vision.

5. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the Loans Segment Target

Architecture.

6. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing the Loans Segment Enterprise

Roadmap.

7. Assist with providing Market Research & Product Evaluation Support.

C.3.3 Data Architecture Planning

FSA seeks Data Architecture Planning services to assist FSA in developing and strengthening robust data management processes. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting

Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing a Data Quality Framework and Implementation Plan.

2. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Data Modeling Standards and

Guidelines.

3. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Data Standardization Policies and

Procedures.

4. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Database Administration and Data

Engineering Best Practices.

5. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing a Enterprise Data Management

Concept of Operations.

6. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Enterprise Data Management

Governance Plans.

7. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Enterprise Data Management

Policies.

8. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Data Migration Templates and

Exemplars.

9. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Data Migration Roadmaps.

C.3.4 Security Architecture Planning

FSA seeks Security Architecture Planning services to assist FSA in developing and strengthening robust security architecture processes. The security architecture is involved in every area of the

Enterprise Architecture. It supports the physical and logical security of the network and servers and the framework for secure software and data management. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Enterprise Security Architecture

Best Practices.

2. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Enterprise Security Architecture

Concept of Operations.

3. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing Personally Identifiable Information

(PII) assessment reports.

C.3.5 Integration Services

FSA seeks Integration Services that are efficient and effective at reducing the percentage of resources spent managing projects, responding to ad-hoc reports, and preparing external status reports. This support also guides the Program based on best practices, demonstrates the value of the integration with FSA goals, and provides a plan for satisfying OMB & GAO requirements.

The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing a Strategic Plan for Integration.

2. Support information technology (IT) strategic planning.

3. Support strategic acquisition planning and implementation.

4. Support policy development and implementation.

5. Support organizational change planning and implementation.

6. Support human capital management planning and implementation.

7. Support integration with Strategic Planning processes.

8. Support integration with IT Governance processes.

9. Support integration with Project Management processes.

10. Support integration with Enterprise Change Management processes.

11. Support integration with Acquisition processes.

12. Support integration with Security and Privacy processes.

13. Support integration with Requirements, Development, Testing, Implementation, and

Retirement processes.

14. Assist with providing Investment Management Technical Assessments.

15. Assist with providing Acquisition Pre-Award and Post-Award Technical and Cost

Reviews.

16. Assist with developing, maintain, and enhancing the Loans Segment Modernization

Plan.

C.3.6 Strategic Planning Services

FSA seeks Strategic Planning Services that refreshes FSA’s statements of strategic direction. Per section 141 (c) of the Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965, as amended through 2016, the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) shall annually produce a 5-year Strategic Plan and publish that plan to the public. The intent of this effort is to foster a culture within FSA to improve performance, empower employees, and engage all stakeholders such as students, parents, colleges and universities, financial institutions, Congress, and taxpayers in the execution of its vital mission. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with documenting the relationship of FSA’s Strategic Plan to the Department’s

Strategic Plan and the process through which performance will be evaluated.

2. Assist with reviewing the message from the Chief Operating Officer and a documented overview of FSA. Assist with providing a summary of programs administered, mission and vision, stakeholders in the Federal Student Aid system, and the organization structure of FSA.

3. Assist with identifying trends and changes to the environment that may have an impact on FSA’s strategic goals and objectives.

4. Assist with reviewing the Strategic Plan overview, the trends in the environment, and the previous strategic goals and objectives to establish new goals and objectives for the next year.

5. Assist with identifying appropriate performance measures for the strategic goals and objectives.

6. Assist with capturing baselines for the metrics and out-year targets that will be established, consistent with FSA’s plans and budget.

7. Assist with ensuring that the Strategic Plan is consistent with Section 230 of OMB’s most recent Circular A-11 Strategic Planning guidance.

C.4 Loans Segment Execution

FSA’s Loans Segment Execution objective is to support the Business to implement and monitor change related activities with a focus on investment, implementation, and performance measurement actions and decisions. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting

Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with providing Select, Control, and Evaluate Support.

2. Assist with providing Architecture Execution Support.

3. Assist with providing Enterprise Data Management Support.

4. Assist with providing Enterprise Governance Support.

C.4.1 Select, Control, and Evaluate

FSA’s investment management process includes the collection of business cases as input into the formation of FSA’s investment portfolio and the execution of IRB approved investments.

Activities are conducted as part of FSA’s major processes for planning, controlling and executing investments. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Support Investment Managers/Project Managers in the preparation and maintenance of

Investment Requests and Major and Non-major IT investment business cases (OMB

Exhibit 300).

2. Assist with ensuring OMB business case and investment request data is captured, synthesized, validated, verified, and has high integrity.

3. Support the method of objectively assessing and ranking investments.

4. Make recommendations to senior executives regarding FSA’s Investment Portfolio

(including operational programs, projects, and strategic initiatives) to assure that investment decisions are mission aligned, cost justified, and approved only after providing a careful and systematic review.

5. Support preparation and maintenance Baseline Change Requests (BCR).

6. Support Management Stage reviews.

7. Assist with maintaining the FSA investment portfolio financial data using data from the

Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) with the Budget Formulation Database

(BFD) and Finance Office work products.

8. Assist with maintaining FSA’s Enterprise Sequencing Plan.

9. Assist with providing quarterly required reports to OMB on FSA’s High-Impact investments and additional OMB data collection points such as OMB’s e-Gov Integrated

Data Collection (IDC).

10. Assist with monitoring the performance of portfolios and investments via standard performance measures found in OMB, ED, and FSA policy and guidance.

11. Assist with developing and submitting to IMG about FSA’s Investment Portfolio

(including operational programs, projects, and strategic initiatives) to validate that investments are mission aligned, cost justified, and other investment selection criteria defined by FSA’s Investment Review Board.

C.4.2 Architecture Execution

FSA seeks to advance the use of the Enterprise Architecture to support its mission objectives.

Advancing the use of the EA leads to better customer and stakeholder awareness, understanding, and support of the EA; provides a continual focus on the business value of EA; provides customers and stakeholders with easier access to architecture information through intuitive architecture tools; and provides resources on how to use the architecture, maintain the information, and analyze and answer critical business questions. This support for advancing the

EA significantly strengthens the partnership between the EA Program and its customers and stakeholders across the agency. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers

(COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with synthesizing, , validating, verifying, and populating high-integrity data within the Enterprise Architecture Repository.

2. Assist with maintaining and enhancing Technology Standards and Products Guide

(TSPG) updates.

3. Assist with developing Impact Assessments and Recommendations on externally mandated directives, standards, and policies.

C.4.3 Enterprise Data Management

FSA seeks Enterprise Data Management services to assist FSA in the implementation of Data

Planning processes to improve the quality of FSA data. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing, and supporting the Enterprise

Conceptual Data Model.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing, and supporting the Enterprise

Logical Data Model.

3. Assist with operations, maintenance, and enhancement of the Enterprise Data

Modeling tool.

4. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing Enterprise Data Dictionary

Standards.

5. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing the Enterprise Data Dictionary.

6. Assist with operations, maintenance, and enhancement of Metadata Management tool.

7. Assist with data profiling and measure data quality.

8. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing Data Profiling Reports.

9. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing Enterprise Data Quality Scorecards.

10. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing an Enterprise Data Quality Mad Dog

Report.

C.4.4 Enterprise Governance

FSA seeks enterprise governance support. The Contractor shall provide recommendations and assist with development, enhancement and implementation of a portfolio management process, investment management process, and Pre-Select process. The Contractor shall assist with providing meeting support for enterprise governance boards and advisory groups. The

Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing, and implementing an approved Pre-

Select Process.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing, and implementing a Portfolio

Management Process.

3. Assist with developing, maintaining, enhancing, and implementing an approved

Investment Management Process.

4. Assist with the development and publication of new guidance and procedures.

5. Assist with preparing training modules.

6. Provide pre and post meeting support for the Investment Review Board (IRB), Investment Management Board (IMB), IRB Support Team, Investment Portfolio

Review, Engineering Review Board (ERB), and Architecture Working Group

(AWG).

7. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing charters and process descriptions in support of the Investment Review Board (IRB), Investment Management Board

(IMB), Engineering Review Board (ERB), and Architecture Working Group (AWG).

C.5 Loans Segment Program Management

FSA seeks Loans Segment Program Management support that is efficient and effective at reducing the percentage of resources spent managing projects, responding to ad-hoc reports, and preparing external status reports. This support also guides the Program based on best practices, demonstrates the value of integration with FSA goals, and provides a plan for satisfying OMB &

GAO requirements. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with facilitating a kick-off meeting.

2. Assist with facilitating the transition-in process.

3. Assist with facilitating the transition-out process.

4. Provide Meeting Minutes.

5. Provide Weekly Status Reports.

6. Provide Monthly Status Reports.

7. Develop and maintain an Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) and corresponding executive presentation.

8. Develop and maintain a Program Management Plan (PgMP).

9. Develop and maintain a Project Management Plan (PMP).

10. Develop and implement a Communication and Marketing Strategy.

11. Develop and implement a Performance Management Plan.

12. Assist with responding to information requests, data calls, and audits from OMB, GAO, U.S. Department of Education, FSA, and other oversight agencies.

13. Provide meeting support and logistics.

14. Provide research and analysis support.

15. Provide expert analysis and consulting for use in establishing strategy and ensuring constant improvement of the program.

16. Assist with developing maturity assessments.

17. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing websites and team sites to support increased consumption and use by stakeholders and customers.

18. Support maintenance of the Enterprise Architecture and Engineering (EAE) investment’s CPIC deliverables.

C.6 Technical Architecture

Federal Student Aid’s (FSA) technical infrastructure is a complex integration of many technologies. FSA requires assistance in performing Technical Architecture Support

Services. These services require access to skilled personnel with a variety of technical skill sets that span the full range of technologies that may be deployed at a major enterprise.

These skill sets include evaluation of technologies, establishment of design standards, and general technical support of new and existing technical projects. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with Acquisition Support.

2. Assist with Design Oversight.

3. Assist with LMM Design Standards and Stage Gates.

4. Assist with Technical Market Research and Requirements.

5. Assist with Process Documentation.

C.6.1 Acquisition Support

FSA requests assistance with capturing acquisition requirements, supporting the selection/award process and providing ongoing acquisition support post award. FSA has a requirement for technical Subject Matter Expertise to assist FSA in preparing the acquisition documentation and evaluation of technical proposals. This includes pre-solicitation, solicitation and post-solicitation. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the

Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with Request for Information Support services.

2. Assist with Statement of Work (SOW)/Statement of Objectives (SOO)

Development and Support Services.

3. Assist with Independent Government Cost Estimate Support Services.

4. Assist with Proposal Evaluation Support Services.

5. Assist with Request for Equitable Adjustment Review Services.

6. Assist with Change Request Cost Review and Evaluation Services.

C.6.2 Design Oversight

FSA has a responsibility to ensure the technical solutions they procure and manage represent industry best practices and evolve over the course of the contract to ensure the risk of solution obsolescence is minimized and the risk of complete system replacement at the end of the contract is minimized. Historically, FSA has taken a prescriptive approach providing specific architectural models that must be followed. FSA would like to move to a less prescriptive approach using Goals, Objectives, Qualities, and Validation Scenarios

Document to steer contractors to meeting FSA technical goals. Introducing this concept will require significant modifications of FSA existing design documentation and evaluation standards. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Goals, Objectives, Qualities, and Validation Scenarios to project teams to guide their design of solutions.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Preliminary and Detailed

Design templates and exemplars

3. Assist with conducting Preliminary and Detailed Design Deliverable Reviews.

4. Assist with performing Stage Gate Reviews.

C.6.3 LMM Design Standards and Stage Gates

FSA requests assistance with ensuring the Lifecycle Management Methodology (LMM) technical deliverable standards and evaluation processes capture and communicate essential information to support risk based decision making. The LMM is FSA’s standard that defines the development life cycle of deliverables that projects must produce. The

Architecture team is responsible for leading the deliverable reviews and Technical Stage

Gates associated with system design. This has been a challenging area. Project teams have had a lot of difficulty understanding how to express their designs in a useful manner to

FSA when using these standards. This functional area focuses on improving and/or replacing these standards to ensure project teams are enabled to express their designs to

FSA’s Subject Matter Experts allowing for fair and critical assessments of system designs.

The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Preliminary and Detailed

Design Deliverable Template and Exemplar standards.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Stage Gate Evaluation

Process standards.

C.6.4 Technical Market Research and Requirements

FSA requests assistance to ensure that FSA has the right technical information to make informed product and system development technique selection decisions. Technology is constantly changing and evolving. FSA needs the ability to investigate and formulate recommendations about key technologies and how they should influence FSA’s technical goals and objectives. The research performed under this functional area may directly contribute to the selection and implementation of specific technologies or may influence

FSA’s Goals, Objectives, Qualities and Validation Scenarios Document. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist with performing Market Research and Requirements Documentation.

2. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Statements of Work (SOW) and Statements of Objectives (SOO).

3. Assist with developing, maintaining, and enhancing Product Evaluation and

Selection Reports.

C.6.5 Process Documentation

FSA requests assistance with creating and maintaining documentation for the processes used to deliver the services provided under this IDIQ. The contractor will be required to assist in developing and maintaining complete process descriptions and documentation for the services provided under this IDIQ. The Contractor shall, at the discretion of the

Contracting Officers (COs), provide services that include, but are not limited to:

1. Assist in defining, documenting and maintaining Technical Architecture Process

Descriptions

Assist with performing process improvements.

(End of Section C)